Everybody in Lexington Knew: A Lesson in Reputation Management

II once took over a business where the previous manager had been stealing from customers.

There’s a fun first day on the job.

This was years ago, long before Kemp Marketing. I worked for a finance company, and they asked me to take over an office in Lexington.

I thought I was taking over an office.

Turns out, I was taking over a reputation.

And not a good one.

What's Brewing in Reputation Managment

Once I got settled in, I started looking through the accounts.

Something felt off.

There were way too many deferred payments.

Now, let me explain what that meant.

With a deferred payment, instead of making your normal full payment for the month, you would pay the interest and the actual payment would basically be moved to the end of the loan.

Except these customers didn't know they were deferring anything.

They would come in, hand over their regular payment and think everything was fine.

The previous manager would apply only the interest to their account and pocket the rest of the money.

On paper, their payment had been deferred.

In their mind, they had made their payment.

And they might not find out until they got to what they thought was the end of the loan and discovered they still owed money.

The really awful part?

In the finance business, a lot of people refinanced before they ever completely paid off a loan.

So there was a pretty good chance some customers would never figure it out.

He had apparently been doing it for years.

Then there was me.

Sitting behind the same desk.

Representing the same company.

Trying to rebuild trust I personally had never broken.

And Lexington is a small town.

If you've ever lived in a small town, you already know.

Good news travels.

Bad news has a race car.

People knew what had happened.

I didn't create the problem, but I inherited the reputation.

Marketing Bite

That's the thing about reputation management.

Sometimes you really are cleaning up a mess.

Maybe it was a previous owner.

A bad manager.

Poor customer service.

Shoddy work.

A bad season in the business.

But sometimes nobody did anything wrong at all.

Sometimes the reputation comes with the position.

Take a home inspector.

There are probably people who think:

"That's the guy who killed my deal."

But did the home inspector kill the deal?

Or did the rotten floor joists, bad wiring and water in the crawlspace kill the deal?

The inspector just told you about it.

But if enough people associate the home inspector with deals falling apart, that perception can become part of his reputation.

And perception matters in marketing.

You could be the best at what you do and still be fighting against what people think you do.

That's reputation management too.

It isn't always about burying something bad.

It can be about changing the way people understand your business, your profession or the role you play.

And that's where I think a lot of businesses get reputation management wrong.

They try to tell people what to think.

"We're different now."

"We care about our customers."

"We're the good guys."

"We've changed."

But saying it louder doesn't necessarily make people believe it.

Especially in a small town.

Take Home the Bacon

Your reputation is the story people tell about you when you're not standing there to explain yourself.

Sometimes you wrote that story.

Sometimes somebody before you wrote it.

And sometimes the story isn't even fair. It's simply the perception that comes with what you do.

You can't control every conversation happening around town.

But you can be intentional about giving people something new to talk about.

That's the part of reputation management I find fascinating.

Because you don't have to stand on a rooftop yelling:

"THAT'S NOT WHO WE ARE!"

There are much smarter ways to change the story.

And if your business is fighting an old reputation, a bad reputation or simply a misunderstood one, maybe the question isn't:

"How do we convince people they're wrong?"

Maybe it's:

"What do we want them saying about us instead?"

I learned that lesson years ago sitting behind a desk in Lexington, cleaning up a mess I didn't make.

I just didn't know yet that one day I'd call it marketing.

Until next breakfast... keep learning, keep serving, and do not forget to take home the bacon.